A Brief History of Badminton

If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. - Michael Crichton

To be able to play the game, without having some knowledge of its origins, is to not truly know the game just yet. Thanks to our press team, we provide an overview of the history of this game in brief points, so you don't need to painfully scour through any details.

Badminton supposedly had its origins in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece

A game very similar to badminton was played in both Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, which went by the names of battledore and shuttlecock (now we know!) Both games involve players on opposite ends hitting shuttlecocks back and forth, although with rackets much tinier than the ones we use today...

Debates about its possible origination in China

Given the ambiguity about the point of origin of the game, it is perhaps fair enough for many people concerned enough with this matter, to argue that there is a link between the Chinese game of 'ti jian zi' and badminton. However, looking at the picture above, one can see how untenable this argument seems.

A game called 'Poona'

A variation of badminton was very popular among the British government officials and military officers in British India. This was first version of badminton in which a net is involved, and thus the modern game as we know it took form. Duke of Beaufort brought the game back to England, where it was very popular among the aristocrats.

The game as it developed in modern times

The first badminton club - the Bath Badminton Club - was established in 1877. The club then developed the first ever set of rules of the game. You know that something is going somewhere when it gets bureaucratized - the first badminton association was founded in 1893 in England. It was known as the Badminton Association and it worked as a world federation till the year 1934 when the International Badminton Federation was founded by nine countries namely: England, Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Scotland, Holland, New Zealand, Canada, and France. India then joined as an affiliate. The federation’s name has since changed to what we know today as the Badminton World Federation

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